February 2

“Forty days after Christmas, we celebrate the Lord who enters the Temple and comes to encounter his people. In the Christian East, this feast is called the “Feast of Encounter”: it is the encounter between God, who became a child to bring newness to our world, and an expectant humanity, represented by the elderly man and woman in the Temple. In the Temple, there is also an encounter between two couples: the young Mary and Joseph, and the elderly Simeon and Anna. The old receive from the young, while the young draw upon the old. In the Temple, Mary and Joseph find the roots of their people. This is important because  God’s promise does not come to fulfillment merely in individuals, once for all, but within a community and throughout history.” (Pope Francis, 2018 Presentation homily)

The Presentation

February 5

From February 3-5, Catania, in Sicily, is filled with pilgrims and devotees of its great procession and festival for Saint Agatha, one of the largest such gatherings in Italy. This beautiful early Roman saint, consecrated to God in virginity, is said to have been martyred after the unrequited advances of the Roman governor Quintanus, who had her imprisoned, assaulted, and tortured, including the removal of her breasts, an account leading to her present-day patronage of breast cancer. She has long been one of the most venerated of the early martyrs, famously eulogized in a poem by Pope Damasus. Her place in the Roman canon of saints was solidified by our own Gregory the Great, who had a great devotion to her.

Procession for Saint Agatha in Catania, Sicily

February 6

The city of Nagasaki has long been important to Catholicism. An important point in this history was the martyrdom of Paul Miki on February 5, 1597: Miki was a native Japanese convert who joined the Jesuits. During his crucifixion, he famously preached to those around him, noting that he could not be accused of being a foreign presence: “I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ.” Missionaries returning to Japan in the late 19^th century found no visible indication of Christian faith, after rigorous and ongoing persecutions. However, thousands in the Nagasaki area had in fact secretly retained their faith in secret. Miki and twenty-five others were canonized in 1862 by Pius IX.

February 10

Scholastica was the twin sister of Saint Benedict, and one finds their shared grave at the High Altar of the cathedral at Monte Cassino. That abbey’s website states that the two, “were never separated in spirit during their life nor are their bodies separated in their death.” Benedictine tradition holds that Scholastica established a hermitage about five miles from Monte Cassino which is considered to be the first “Benedictine” convent. A most famous story of the two is of Scholastica wanting Benedict to remain with her, perhaps aware that her death was imminent, and upon his refusal praying to God. A terrible storm then arose, forcing Benedict to stay. Asked what she had done, she replied to her brother: “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen.” While historical support for stories of Benedict and Scholastica is limited, their legacy is strong, and Scholastic is considered the foundress of female Benedictines and patroness of all nuns.

February 11

The designation of this feast day to Our Lady, in her apparition at Lourdes, is one of a group of memorials dedicated to Our Lady with relation to her appearances. Among them are Fatima, Loreto, Guadeloupe, and Mount Carmel, with additional more locally celebrated days. The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was established by Pope Leo XIII, and first granted to the Diocese of Tarbes in the year 1890. Less than twenty years later (1907), his successor, Pope St. Pius X proclaimed that it be observed universally. On the centenary of the apparitions to Bernadette, Pope Pius XII wrote:  “Every Christian land is a Marian land; there is not a nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness.” We see this reflected in the United States, whose patroness is the Mary, the Immaculate Conception, a title declared by Mary to Bernadette. We also see this devotion reflected in our own Lourdes grotto on campus.

Grotto on the Portsmouth Abbey campus

February  14

This day to commemorate the historically very significant Cyril and Methodius has the unfortunate fate of coinciding with the date associated with the less historical but more romantically appealing Valentine. Known as “The Apostles to the Slavs,” these ninth-century Byzantine scholars are credited with developing the earliest Slavic alphabet. The two were well-educated and well-connected politically, combining skills of scholarship and political savvy in negotiating the difficult tensions of their times. Among their many other duties and accomplishments, Methodius served as an abbot, Cyril a professor of philosophy.

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February 21

Winning the approval of Dante Alighieri, 11^th century Benedictine and cardinal, Peter Damian, guides him through the sphere of Saturn in Paradiso. Peter Damian was among those pious and dedicated monastics who found themselves called to more active leadership roles in the church. Damian was cautious towards the assumed powers of the human intellect, finding philosophy often overstepping its limitations – yet his theological insights led him to be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI called him, “one of the most significant figures of the 11th century…, a monk, a lover of solitude and at the same time a fearless man of the Church, committed personally to the task of reform, initiated by the Popes of the time.” (General Audience, 2009) Benedict emphasizes that the Hermitage at Fonte Avellana, to which Damian withdrew, was dedicated to the Holy Cross, “and the Cross was the Christian mystery that was to fascinate Peter Damian more than all the others. ‘Those who do not love the Cross of Christ do not love Christ,’ he said (Sermo XVIII, 11, p. 117).”

February 22

The “Chair of Saint Peter” is both physical object and theological doctrine. In both senses, the chair is centered in St. Peter’s Basilica, which is both the symbol of the magisterial authority of the See, and the location of a now highly ornamented throne. The Catholic Encyclopedia: “During the Middle Ages it was customary to exhibit [the chair] yearly to the faithful; the newly-elected pope was also solemnly enthroned on this venerable chair. . . .” The more recent version is the work of the quintessential Roman master Bernini. Concerning the “theological” chair, Pope Benedict XVI: “This is a very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his Successors. ‘Cathedra’ literally means the established seat of the Bishop, placed in the mother church of a diocese which for this reason is known as a ‘cathedral’; it is the symbol of the Bishop’s authority and in particular, of his ‘magisterium’, that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the Apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian Community."

February 23

Polycarp is considered one of the three great “Apostolic Fathers,” together with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. Irenaeus heard him speak, and he is counted as a disciple of John the Apostle, providing a historic link to the apostles. He disputed the reductive Christology of Marcion. And if St. Paul is considered foundational in articulating the faith, Polycarp was crucial in the preservation of the orthodoxy articulated by Paul, against his cooption by early Gnosticism. The “Martyrdom of Polycarp” provides the oldest authentic account of an early Christian’s martyrdom.